On a schedule

Back up this week's Canva designs as PDFs

Every Friday you get PDF download links for each design you edited that week, ready to save.

Runs: On a schedule
Apps: Canva
AI: Not needed
Access: design:meta:read, design:content:read

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every Friday at 5pm, export the Canva designs I edited this week as PDFs and email the download links to me at me@studio.com.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

Add to ChatGPT Add to Claude

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Designs in Canva are valuable work, yet they live in one account. A staff member leaves, a subscription lapses or a design is edited into something unrecognizable, and the version that went to the client last quarter is gone. Teams often assume Canva keeps everything forever, then discover the lost original when a customer asks for a reprint of an older brochure.

Every week, ClickRuntime lists your designs sorted by last modified, picks the recent ones, creates a PDF export job for each, waits for the jobs to finish and emails you the download links. The result is a regular set of PDF copies that you control outside the Canva account.

Small businesses, agencies and nonprofits that treat their designs as assets will find it a useful safety net. Even a team of two can set it up in a few minutes.

What you get out of it

Lost work can be recovered
A weekly PDF copy means last month's brochure exists even if the Canva design is overwritten. Rebuilding from nothing costs far more than keeping a file. Rebuilding a brochure from memory costs far more than keeping a file, and the backup arrives automatically every week.
Staff changes are less risky
When a designer leaves, their recent work is already backed up as PDFs. The team keeps the output of everything they produced in the final weeks. The final weeks of someone's work are often the least documented, so a recent export protects the most vulnerable output.
Client reprints become simple
Customers sometimes ask for the exact version sent a few months ago. A dated export lets you provide it without guessing which edit it was. Handing over the exact file avoids debates about which version the customer actually approved.
Audit and compliance records
Regulated businesses sometimes need proof of what a published document looked like on a certain date. Weekly PDFs create that record with no manual effort. A dated copy of a published document is straightforward evidence for a regulator, an insurer or an internal review.
Ownership stays with you
Copies outside the design tool mean you are not dependent on one account or plan. Moving to another tool or sharing files with a printer becomes easier. Files that live outside the design tool can be shared with any printer or moved to any other tool without friction.

How it works

What happens, step by step

Every Friday at 5pm, ClickRuntime finds the Canva designs that were edited this week.
It asks Canva to export each one as a PDF and waits until the files are ready.
You get one email with each design's name and a download link to its PDF.

Before it runs live

Connect Canva

What you get

RunsOn a schedule

Back up this week's Canva designs as PDFstoday, 9:00Succeeded

Email · Canva PDFs: 3 designs this weekNorthwind autumn flyer https://export-download.canva.com/...pdf

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other Canva steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

scheduled_design_export_backup.pyexample

import time
from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone
from clickruntime import on_trigger, notify, http, credentials

API = "https://api.canva.com/rest/v1"

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer " + credentials.connection("canva", "main")}
    week_ago = (datetime.now(timezone.utc) - timedelta(days=7)).timestamp()
    designs = [d for d in http.get(f"{API}/designs", headers=headers, params={"sort_by": "modified_descending"}).json()["items"] if d["updated_at"] >= week_ago]
    lines = []
    for d in designs:
        job = http.post(f"{API}/exports", headers=headers, json={"design_id": d["id"], "format": {"type": "pdf"}}).json()["job"]
        while job["status"] == "in_progress":
            time.sleep(2)
            job = http.get(f"{API}/exports/{job['id']}", headers=headers).json()["job"]
        if job["status"] == "success":
            lines.append(f"{d['title']}\n" + "\n".join(job["urls"]))
    notify.email_me(f"Canva PDFs: {len(lines)} designs this week", "\n\n".join(lines) or "No designs edited this week.")
    return {"exported": len(lines)}

FAQ

Common questions

Does it export every design or only recent ones?

Only recently modified designs, taken from the list sorted by last modified. That keeps each week's exports to the work that has actually changed, instead of exporting everything again. The number of designs per run can be limited.

How long do the export links last?

Canva export links are temporary download URLs, so download the files soon after the email arrives. If you want permanent storage, a step to save the files to cloud storage can be added, which would be a bigger change to review.

Can I export as PNG instead of PDF?

Yes. The export job takes a format, so PNG, JPG or other formats Canva supports can be used. PDF is the usual choice for backups because it keeps multi-page designs together. Tell your AI assistant which format you prefer.

What permissions does it need?

design:meta:read, design:content:read. Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run each time it runs (on a schedule). Checks that find nothing to do and stop right away aren't counted.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

On a schedule